‘MAD’ movie review: Sangeeth Shobhan and Vishnu Oi sparkle in director Kalyan Shankar’s campus entertainer that packs in plenty of laughs within its wafer-thin storyline

MAD, directed by Kalyan Shankar, is a hilarious campus caper that doesn’t take itself too significantly

Director Kalyan Shankar’s Telugu movie MAD, which will get its identify from its three principal characters — Manoj (Ram Nithin), Ashok (Nithin Narne) and Damodar (Sangeeth Shobhan) — lives as much as its identify by delivering a madcap entertainer. The laughs are so considerable that you don’t trouble about its sliver of a narrative. Watching MAD is like getting into an engineering campus and being aware of the enjoyable riot in the lecture rooms and hostels. It doesn’t take itself significantly and hopes that its viewers won’t both.

Kalyan Shankar speaks to the late teenagers and early 20s about campus days. The narrative unfolds from the purpose of view of Ganesh aka Laddu (Vishnu Oi), a brilliant senior who reminisces his early days on campus to a more energizing who feels misplaced and needs to go dwelling. Laddu has been there and confronted an identical scenario, solely to be a modified man within just a few days of experiencing campus life and forging new friendships.

Certain issues in MAD are typical of a filmi campus caper. No one research; the uncommon ones that do are shooed away with a comment, ‘who comes to the library to study? Go home’. Professors and the principal aren’t spared from changing into the butt of jokes.

If you look previous this, the hilarity in MAD comes from the small, absurd incidents. For occasion, an egg puff is motive sufficient for a long-standing battle between two campuses!

The movie is a riot as soon as we’re launched to Manoj, who thinks he’s a charmer, the introverted and brooding Ashok who doesn’t make buddies simply, and the goofy Damodar aka DD who can enliven issues for everybody round him.

The total stretch in which DD, who is aware of nothing about taking part in basketball, trains a staff of boys by following the motivational rigamarole that one would witness in sports activities motion pictures, is a riot. He has the zeal and craving to win however doesn’t know the sport. Sangeeth has loads of enjoyable taking part in the happy-go-lucky DD discovering a brand new world after his ‘Zilla parishad Telugu medium school’. 

At the identical time, the conversations between Laddu and his father (Muralidhar Goud of DJ Tillu fame) are hilarious. Muralidhar is definitely one of the very best actors in Telugu cinema right this moment to play the annoyed father who delivers snarky traces with a deadpan expression. Vishnu Oi performs a self-aware character who suits the invoice of a super-senior pupil.

There’s sufficient room for love for the three foremost characters. Gouri Priya and Ananthika play their temporary components with earnestness. DD’s romance has a touch of thriller, however an hour into the movie, it’s not powerful to fathom who may very well be behind the thriller. 

The boys hostel is called after Bhagat Singh whereas the women hostel is called after Rani Jhansi Lakshmi Bai, which could be inferred as the scholars quest for independence. Within the framework of the hostel, although, the movie exhibits how a lot enjoyable could be had. 

Perhaps years later, Manoj, Ashok and Damodar will look again on their campus days, their Happy Days, and smile. The movie is content material narrating this chapter in their lives with out asking massive questions on their aspirations. 

This campus caper additionally doffs its hat to Anudeep KV, the writer-director of one other farce Jathi Ratnalu, who seems in a cameo. 

MAD isn’t one of these motion pictures that may be remembered for lengthy. But it delivers ample enjoyable whereas it lasts.